it’s clear Dina consistently comes up with the best book titles. i move for Willis to change his rule of “no two book titles in a row may come from the same character” to “all book titles will henceforth be Dina quotes”
That’s exactly what I say everytime I see a pair of boobs. Maybe throw in a couple of huminas in there too. It’s really awkward when in life drawing sessions.
Well, at least that’s a start. Perhaps they’ll have better luck attempting to duplicate the circumstances of the first peripheral euphoria rush that occurred after science class?
“Did she just read Joe’s blog? Facebook? Twitter? Does he have a how-to guide out there? Am I allowed to go make a parody Joevice (advice from Joe) website?”
Becky has the same unique blend of repressed sexuality and extreme horniness that Joyce does. It can manifest in strange and potentially offputting ways.
Lil bit, yeah. Not sure many people are particularly aroused by the word “juices”. Like, not zero, but… it’s not real high up on the list of things non-becky people find sexy.
no, this is pretty much the kind of thing sexual people think about in the back of our heads all the time, we just don’t usually talk about it. gotta keep it buried under cultural mores, but hey, if you’re gonna bring it up, it’s gotta be to the person you’re in a potentially sexual relationship with.
I find it gross in an appealing kinda way. Something kinda primal about that idea supersedes the grossness of it for me. Like how the idea of “work up a good sweat” sounds kinda gross cuz sweat is gross” but it also gives you this imagery of a job well done.
I also identify under the ace umbrella, and I absolutely agree with you. While there is a possibility that Dina could be Demisexual and simply isnt at the correct stage of emotional bond, if it bothers Becky that much her girlfriend does not view her in a sexual light, she should not be in the relationship, especially how easily Dina was swayed here to try to do something to please Becky.
The longer I read this comic, the more I grow to absolutely dislike Becky.
I think it’s good that she’s talking about her feelings instead of bottling up her desires. It’d be one thing if she kept her desires to herself, she’s telling Dina about how she feels. They can work from there. She’s not trying to guilt trip her, she’s just speaking openly about how she feels now that she’s realizing Dina may feel differently.
Dina HAS expressed an interest in sex with Becky, though, at Dina’s birthday party. She just doesn’t experience the same kind of arousal or libido that Becky does. Dina’s not being swayed to do anything she doesn’t want to do, and acting a certain way to please a partner isn’t inherently bad. If I make my partner breakfast, it’s not because I think I’m obligated to please him, it’s because it will make him happy.
The problem there though, as I read it, is that although Dinah has expressed an interest in sex with Becky, she’s also made it clear that she will go through with it if Becky wants to; but Becky seems to want Dinah to take the lead (probably due to her repressed upbringing, resulting in a resistance to the idea of actually being responsible for initiating sex) – something Dinah isn’t going to do. If Becky wants the situation she describes in that first panel, she’s going to have to arrange it herself.l
Gross, yes, but when you consider that Becky’s a repressed Christian lesbian who is trying to come to terms with how to progress her relationship with her asexual girlfriend, I can give her some leeway here. Voicing her feelings to Dina is fine, her language is just kind of Belinda Blinked tier of sex thoughts.
Speaking as a (mostly? I guess?) allo here… Black out? What fun is it if you don’t remember it. Six days later? Are you missing work for it? Did you mean to miss work for it? That’s into addiction territory. Was consent involved? I’d guess it was, but it didn’t get mentioned. PILE of their own lady juices? What’d the juices do, harden in layers into something like a termite hive? Yeah, taken literally it’s all pretty disgusting.
And I think that’s on purpose. I’m taking Becky here as emphasizing the loss of control as the big important point. For her love (and sex) are beyond rationality, a force that threatens to overwhelm her reasoning and willpower and (Becky’s version of) decorum. Something bigger than her, something she can get subsumed in. If I’m right, you could substitute the idea of “I want to get wrapped up cuddling and kissing you so thoroughly that we completely lose our sense of time and don’t realize it until a week later, and I feel inadequate, unattractive, and like you’re not invested in this relationship like I am when you don’t feel the same thing about me” and you’d have the same conflict, only expressed in a non-sexual way.
Which… well, I don’t want to say that feelings are WRONG, because feelings aren’t factual matters and I’m not sure they can be right or wrong. But it’s problematic on a few levels. And that’s kind of the point to, and why (in addition to religious baggage) Becky is fighting those urges, and expressing the need to fight them in terms that emphasize the juxtaposition between how over-the-top and kinda disgusting it is and how much she wants them anyway.
@Reltzik: well put. a sex-negative education is likely to make your sex drive pretty freaky. try to quell desire with talk of sin and punishment, and what you end up with is still desire, still just as strong, but now a bit monstrous.
Yeah, it’s really clear Becky’s looking for the complete loss of control as absolution for wanting to have sex. Also, that she maybe has some questionable ideas of what that entails. End result, kind of terrifying read objectively.
I doubt Becky really means to black out and wake up six days later. However, imagery with one orgasming so hard that one loses track of what is going on for a few moments is common hyperbole in romance novels. Becky is simply ‘turning it up to 11’ as she does with everything.
Oh no, Becky’s description is horrific, and I am not ace. I am a healthcare provider, and you know you’ve done something wrong when talk of body fluids squicks out a healthcare provider. Becky has accomplished a feat.
It isn’t something I would have considered gross until seeing it mentioned (I guess I still don’t). It’s like you can describe body processes in a really accurate way and make them seem really squick, you can describe a lot of stuff that way. But if it isn’t getting a visceral reaction then it’s just a descriptive word.
Becky is just talking about physicality overcoming the wall in her mind that she shouldn’t do stuff. The ‘gross’ words just seem interchangeable for that . I suppose it’s like someone asking you to take the trash out and describing the state of the garbage bag.
You know, this whole thread kind of demonstrates the cultural misogyny when it comes to descriptions of female arousal.
Everyone is getting all grossed out by the idea of female arousal – ie, wetness. Women are juicy – it’s how we work. It’s lubrication. Nothing is more natural. And yet, tons of people find even the words to describe that wetness to be disgusting.
And yet, no one is saying that terms that describe male arousal are gross.
Just sayin – before you all go off on how gross Becky is, maybe consider your own cultural preprogramming about why you think female wetness is gross.
(In case it isn’t obvious, this thread really upset me.)
I’m sorry that the conversation upset you, Rose. By and large, people’s reactions are just people’s reactions, valid for them as individuals. It could well be cultural, but I’m under the vague (and possibly mistaken) impression that many of the people grossed out identify as female.
Personally I find male arousal just as squicky as female arousal, if not a lot more so. Basically, human sexual activity and response are squicky and gross; it’s just that the sensations and experiences, emotional and otherwise, associated with it are not.
I feel like that’s…kind of an extreme leap in logic? Like if Joe, for example, were to say “God me and that girl basically melted together into a worldwind of sex until I stuffed her like a turkey and soaked in her love juices.” do you think people wouldn’t call it out for being gross? Especially in this community? I’m sorry but I’m really not a fan of when people make a base accusation about people being sexist based on circumstantial evidence. People are allowed to be grossed out by something without it being because they’ve been taught to find lady parts gross. Take it from me, a guy who DOES find lady parts gross who thinks Becky’s statement is HOT AS FUCK.
Sorry you were upset Rose. Not my intention. I myself am a woman and keeping in mind that I am ace, I find words of arousal for both genders really disgusting. I would prefer not to be told that my reaction is due to misogyny, I have been told that my ace feelings in general are an ‘internalized misogyny’ from people who… I guess, assumed that my lack of interest in sex was due to the cultural attitude that women must remain pure and that I MUST be some poor, repressed woman that just internalized misogyny and thus doesn’t want sex.
When really, I just don’t want sex and find it repulsive. Everybody else can do their thing, but I do find a lot of Becky’s descriptions, from the idea of blacking out for 6 days, to waking up in a ‘pile’ of ‘juices’ to be very offputting. It’s not because Becky and Dina are women, it’s not because of ‘lady juices’, it’s because the idea of two people (of any gender) being passed out for six days in coagulated juices (of any kind) just makes me want to take a shower.
I don’t know if that’s a fair assessment. There’s loads of words Becky coulda used that would have read as much less squicky, I’m sure- wet or slick come to mind as pretty benign or even sexy words to describe the physiological state of an aroused vagina. Juices reminds me of, like… food. Not even good food, for some reason it takes me straight to a slab of raw steak, and not a piece of fruit or something. That’s why it grosses me out. Same would go for succulent, and plump just reminds me of a kindly old grandma, so that’s a no from me.
There’s a ton of gross words to describe an erect penis, too. Engorged, for instance. Just makes me think of some kind of medical condition. Throbbing, tumescent, occasionally you’ll see weeping, and boy is THAT one gross. You can make any sex act sound repulsive if you word it right.
hey Rose, you probably won’t read this cos it’s the next day but you have my sympathies, i can see how there was an element of something-shaming in this outpouring of unrestrained expressions of disgust, contempt, disapproval… sorry about that, definitely bad phrasing and insensitivity on my part at least.
Hearing it generally? Yes. Imagining myself and my partner in that context (who is funnily enough sex positive aspec)? i definitely get where she’s coming from
Ok so. I said I wasn’t gonna do another of these but like. Look I’m like super into boob flashing and this sorta happened. This isn’t my fault I swear I’m gonna take a break after this. https://imgur.com/a/Z77Dnt8 (NSFW)
I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere before but not sure where. My favorite is Futurama’s
“You should go into the kitchen and make me sugar cookies”
“How about THESE cookies, Sugar?”
My artistic answer:
She’s puffing her chest out a bit to really show off the girls
My real answer:
I fucked up and didn’t feel like fixing it (a 3rd time). It was serviceable for the point of the drawing and just figured it wasn’t a huge deal.
I can’t believe I was allowed to keep working after that blunder only to make the same mistake twice in a row. I sure hope I get what’s coming to me for THAT blunder.
I don’t think inhibition is the one dimensional axis people often mistake it for. There is literally a whole field of study dedicated to clarifying such a mechanism.
I’m sleep-deprived, so please excuse this confusion. Are you saying it looks like I did them the same color? Because Imgur compressed the picture a lot for some reason, and I definitely used different shades on The Girls.
you’re supposed to be in a constant state of near-incapacitating arousal when doing hard science. you should be just about to explode with barely contained lust the whole entire time. that’s the scientific method.
Look, if you don’t get flustered every time WHY water has properties straight out of science fiction* comes up, I don’t want to hang around you. By jove, those hydrogen bonds. *fans self*
*No, seriously, if you only knew water from a sci-fi novel, you’d immediately dismiss the whole book as fantasy with no basis in reality.
I mean, water doesn’t work “properly” in most of the universe. There’s a band of temperature-pressure ratio in which it does all the incredibly bonkers stuff it does, but outside of it it’s just meh.
Look at it this way. Suppose I ask for your help in a science experiment. I give you a six sided dice and ask you to verify as well as you can in a short period of time that it is a fair dice, resulting in a number showing on the top from 1 to 6, each of them equally likely. While you are doing that, where you can’t see what I’m writing, I write “You rolled a 1” on a card and place it in an envelope. After a while, I ask you if the dice seems reasonably fair to you. Unless you tell me that it almost always rolls ones, I hand you the envelope and ask you to put it in your pocket or other secure location. I then ask you to roll the dice one final time. If you roll anything but a 1, then I shoot you in the head putting a bullet through your brain. If you roll a 1 then I have you open the envelope and look at what I wrote and then I ask you for the explanation of why what you rolled matched what I wrote.
The correct answer is, “inherently biased sampling.”
It remains the correct answer even if the experiment is only ever performed once.
Dina just starts describing Tex Avery cartoon reactions in monotone: “Heart pounding out of chest in anatomically incorrect shape. Tongue rolls out like an unnervingly fleshy carpet.”
NGL I headcanon Becky’s dead mom as also having been a lesbian, trapped in a loveless marriage with Toedad. It’d explain Hank’s comment that she would be proud of the person Becky’s become.
not sure if Becky’s expression in the last panel is “tear my clothes off right now” or “nope, this is not gonna work” but we’ll probably find out tomorrow
To be fair, I think that’d be a tough thing for any non-asexual to not only accept but to live with. Physical intimacy is a normal, healthy part of just about every romantic relationship, necessary even to help the bonds of love remain.
If one of them cannot be physically intimate, then it’s going to be that much harder for the relationship to continue.
So on one hand: some ace people are down to bone- for some folks, just cuz they’re not sexually attracted to you doesn’t mean they’re not down for sex *with* you, since they won’t *necissarily* be repulsed by it either. (Kind of like masturbating- you’re not going to be attracted to your own hand/vibe/whatever, but you can still have a good time? Wish I had a better metaphor)
Now, some ace peeps are definitely sex-repulsed, and just won’t wanna bone, but we can’t really assume either way in dina’s case since she hasn’t tried it and has more or less said she doesn’t know what it’ll be like. But physical intimacy is a bit different from sexual attraction, if that makes sense.
Dina has explicitly stated she’s willing to be physically intimate. The hangup is Becky’s perception of how Dina sees her, and if her failure to present as sexually attractive is indicative of her worth in a Christian society.
Those thoughts are along the lines of my own. I don’t believe Dina has expressly stated she’s asexual. In this strip she’s giving me pretty strong demisexual vibes when she references being attracted to Becky because it’s Becky. Dina almost certainly knows what a “conventionally” attractive woman looks like, but those ladies aren’t her girlfriend, so she’s not going to lust after them. Sharing that emotional connection with Becky seems to be what makes Becky attractive to Dina, and Dina has definitely expressed her willingness and desire to engage in physical intimacy with Becky of her own volition. I think it’s pretty unfair of Becky to not place as much value on that expression simply because the intensity doesn’t match that of her own desires.
Yeah, this is painful for me to read as an ace person. Having your feelings be basically dismissed as worthless because they aren’t the ‘right’ kind of feelings hurts. Like, a lot.
Give her time. Everybody’s got ideas in their heads about the future, and those can’t be changed instantly. She’ll get used to the world she actually lives in.
And I’d bet that she’ll come to terms with Dina’s asexuality faster than I came to terms with mine, and I don’t think it would be fair for me to hold her to a more stringent standard than that.
I’m hoping that it being a focus the last few arcs and them talking about it now means she’ll at least get over the worst hangups and start educating herself.
Ah Becky, you sweet insecure lesbian. One day you will stop shooting yourself in the foot but today is not that day. But hey, communication! A very good step!
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I like that they’re communicating and that Dina is willing to work on pleasing her partner but it just feels a little one sided right now. Like Becky is chasing this unrealistic fantasy of a person who is super horny for her at all times. A girl version of Joe basically. But that’s a lot to live up to. I don’t think Dina should carry all that expectation. I think they can meet in the middle a bit more.
I think Dina is being perfectly reasonable and has maintained excellent communication throughout their relationship, but the church has poisoned Becky’s sense of worth as a dutiful godly future wife.
Yknow, what would be a wild twist is if Becky cheated on Dina by having full on crazy sexy times with Daisy, from being so hung up on Dina’s lack of sexual attraction and Daisy being, well, sexually attracted to anyone with boobs. It’s not a path I see DoA taking and it’s not a route that I would want for them, but that would be a wild arc
Daisy’s definitely horny enough and might even be exactly what Becky’s looking for as far as insensity of desire but I wouldn’t say she’s a Joe. To be at Joe levels you have to be horny and capable of regularly acting on it. We actually haven’t seen a girl character like that yet lesbian or otherwise. Daisy’s very horny but also very lonely. That’s a key distinction.
You always hear about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but it’s a lesser-known fact that there were also 700 Thespians there. An even lesser-known fact is that there actually weren’t any Spartans. There were just a thousand Thespians, 300 of whom were playing Spartans.
Well, this is her FIRST attempt at role playing a role she has no natural affinity for and has spent like three seconds researching online.
But this is also DINA. When she throws herself into learning a subject, she goes all the way. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her diving into the question, reading scholarly papers about how emotional and sexual drives interact, etc. My headcanon’s already playing out extremely awkward (for them) conversations she can be having with the research desk at the library. And given that she’s already into role-playing (rarr… er, hompk), I’m pretty sure she can master this role too.
… but she probably shouldn’t need to. I’m pretty sure that decent conversation can sort it all out. It’s not like we’re in a comic strip where communication is ruined by ill-timed interruptions or perpetual foot-in-mouth disease.
Not only is Dina a thespian, she masticates daily, and I understand that she had to matriculate before the Dean of Admissions before she was allowed to attend classes.
Time for Becky to learn that sometimes getting what you want means you find out you didn’t want what you got. But this is cute and communication is good.
I’m just imagining her following him with a pen and a pad.
“ok, and so you compared these women to poultry. Is that an important step? And how effective are your techniques”
“Shockingly effective. I am just as surprised at my own successes as anyone.”
It frustrates me as a grey ace like Dina, because Dina’s perfectly willing to experiment and looks forward to it. Becky who is waiting for marriage doesn’t want that she just wants Dina to be distracted with desire for her and Dina just doesn’t work that way.
Yeah same here, I’m finding it difficult to read when Dina is trying so much and Becky is still wishing she was something she isn’t. I can see at the moment it’s Becky just talking through her feelings but as an ace person reading it, it’s just like ugh idk why does this one thing have to be so difficult to accept, can you just accept this amazing girlfriend you have
I’m hanging in there with the strip itself, but there’s only so much bandwidth I have for the comments and constant misunderstandings of asexuality.
Becky’s a repressed 18-year-old, I don’t expect her to come in with a baseline understanding and there’s clearly anxiety in the way. Exasperating, yes, but internally consistent fictional character. The real people who don’t seem interested in Googling or listening to ace commenters? That hurts.
Yo Becky, maybe you should let go of a few of your fantasies; they’re blocking your view of this real and absolutely amazing girlfriend. “I like the way you look because it’s the way *you* look”? Holy shit, that’s the most goddamn romantic thing anyone has said in this whole story!
This basically sums up how I feel about absolutely everything to do with my partner as an ace person. I just wish society and allo people in general could actually appreciate the way our aceness gives us a potentially unique perspective on romance, instead of having our feelings always be automatically assumed to be lesser, or some sort of compromise, or a burden, just because they aren’t what is expected or considered “normal”.
I feel that because of all of Dina’s dinosaur internet searches, all of her other searches will first pass through a “prehistoric” style Google result. Hence cave-lady attraction.
well she did claim all she needed was “sufficient” research.
and how do you know figure out how much research is needed?
hypothetico-deductive method, baby.
Reading some of the reactions of ace readers regarding this storyline, I wonder how difficult it is to balance writing a story that comes at the expense of a character part of a real life group where misunderstanding about the building blocks of who they are (which is a shared universal experience) has a textual acknowledgement in sympathetic and heroic characters.
I had opinions about Danny and Amber and the reactions from the commentariat they received, some where I overreacted and some where I was completely justified in feeling the way I did, but what I’m getting at is that the textual elements of their characters reflecting my own life lead me to have extremely strong reactions to both the story developments and how other people reacted to them.
Minor note, but I like your Grav. I recognize the JJBA half of the reference, but who’s the character cosplaying as Jotaro? Looks a little bit like Joyce to me.
I also wonder how difficult it is writing this material when it comes out one page at a time and the audience has 24 hours to stew over it before the next one. If a character in a book does something wrong you just gotta turn enough pages until it’s resolved one way or the other, when I read John Dies At The End I can go “damn Dave Wong is an asshole” and then keep reading until I find greater insight into his character. That’s not something the reader can control in ongoing fiction.
I suspect that’s a particularly tricky aspect. Even a collection of the storyline, or it posted in full in the archives, lets you go from one strip into the next so you don’t have to stew in the ‘ugh Becky I get why you don’t get this but also WHY AREN’T YOU LISTENING TO WHAT DINA’S ACTUALLY SAYING HERE’ as much.
It’s a tricky balancing act when writing teenage characters in particular, especially sheltered ones – I’m sure there’s going to be a unique challenge whenever the Joyce Learns About Jocelyne story comes along, as well, because we all know it’ll break her brain for a minute but we’re also sure she’ll be supportive and accepting once she does reboot but in that minute it’s probably going to be a mess. The fact that this is a realistic portrayal of a sheltered teen with deep sexuality-based hangups who will hopefully listen and recognize this doesn’t have to be the dealbreaker her anxiety’s saying it is doesn’t mean I don’t find it kind of exhausting to wait, or that I have much patience for commenters who are ALSO refusing to Google. Probably wouldn’t read a book using this storyline where Becky was the sole protagonist. Might potentially read the sequels, if I knew she would eventually get it.
I am reminded of how Questionable Content handles these kinds of stories, where the cast is pretty much always accepting and understanding because that’s the story Jeph Jacques wants to tell. I think there’s value in that, I think Queer characters should be able to exist even if their stories aren’t Queer Romance Drama, but then I also both see value in Dumbing of Age’s approach where sympathetic and likable characters will say stupid and abhorrent shit that comes naturally to them because they have no reason to believe otherwise, while also having to understand based on my own experiences where I was upset and then took it way, way too far, that it’s extremely easy for me to say “I hope Becky gets educated and learns to communicate with Dina, she’s being unfair placing all these expectations around Dina’s sexuality” when I basically made it my job to get mad at everyone here if they said the wrong thing about Danny, and also I changed what the wrong thing was in real time.
Yep. People are complicated and messy and there’s value in showing that, but that does sometimes produce stronger emotional reactions. (I also think the DoA cast being college undergrads, mostly freshmen, is a huge factor in why it’s tolerable too. That young you’re still mostly a kid, and that means a lot more fucking up is expected than even the ambiguously 20somethings of the QC cast. Though maybe some of them have been allowed to graduate to being 30 now.)
Poor Becky in that last panel. 🙁 That is the look of “this is never going to be the relationship that I dreamed of”. I don’t think I’ve ever made a similar expression, but I know the EXACT feeling that spawns it when I’ve mentioned that I’m into BDSM to potential partners before and a look of complete disgust/outrage/”this relationship is over” comes over their face. Sometimes, if the attraction/feelings are strong enough, they’ll try to indulge me, but I now know from experience that if their first reaction isn’t excitement/curiosity, it’s going to be a part of me that they’ll never truly accept.
One CAN condition one’s brain to do almost anything, if determined, including sexual orientation.
Whether one *should* is a whole other debate. I tend to think choosing to do so oneself, out of one’s own desire to be a certain way, absolves a lot of the negativity out of the issue.
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NAILED IT
…wait, not YET she didn’t wink wink
DOA11: Look At Those Bazongas Ooga Ooga Ooga.
Ladies and germs, we have the title of the next book – you can all go home now. ;D
Also Dina – needs work. Don’t worry, you’ll get it with practice (perhaps you could try giving the bazongas a squeeze and go “HOMPK!” ^^)
it’s clear Dina consistently comes up with the best book titles. i move for Willis to change his rule of “no two book titles in a row may come from the same character” to “all book titles will henceforth be Dina quotes”
Don’t be greedy. We already have the promise of Willis that Dina will be on the cover from now on.
we do? haha okay why not ^^
See? Dina’s helping.
Well, I’m sold
Thespis would be proud.
I bet it’s convincing because she found Joe’s website.
Welp, Idunno what Becky’s talking about, I’m certainly convinced.
That’s exactly what I say everytime I see a pair of boobs. Maybe throw in a couple of huminas in there too. It’s really awkward when in life drawing sessions.
Particularly when no-one there is named Becky.
I appreciate that Dina is looking at Becky’s face and not boobs as she says it
I had to look up hew-MEEN-uhs. That wasn’t it at all.
The comment section is always educational.
Well, at least that’s a start. Perhaps they’ll have better luck attempting to duplicate the circumstances of the first peripheral euphoria rush that occurred after science class?
Dina.maybe needs to workshop her catcalling.
She only does dinosaur calls unfortunately.
Cut to: her phone screen and it turns out she didn’t google it or anything, she just texted Joe.
She didn’t even ask him what to say. She just typed “Becky’s boobs” and that’s how he responded.
EXACTLY MY THOUGHT!
“Did she just read Joe’s blog? Facebook? Twitter? Does he have a how-to guide out there? Am I allowed to go make a parody Joevice (advice from Joe) website?”
Our culture has too few tastemakers.
Our culture has too few lesbian thespians solving matrices Hessian.
AKA, not enough Dinas.
Accurate, but you forgot one thing. She’s actually bi.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/item/
True, but then it no longer rhymes.
As an ace person… Becky’s description in that first panel is disturbing and gross. I’m assuminng it’s probably gross to most Non-Becky people.
it’s a bit much, yes.
then again, “a bit much” is typical Becky.
Becky generally starts at “over the top”, and works from there.
Always ask for more, and negotiate down to what you actually wanted in the first place.
Becky has the same unique blend of repressed sexuality and extreme horniness that Joyce does. It can manifest in strange and potentially offputting ways.
At least she’s not asking Dina to rub her head on (Becky’s) tummy.
Lil bit, yeah. Not sure many people are particularly aroused by the word “juices”. Like, not zero, but… it’s not real high up on the list of things non-becky people find sexy.
no, this is pretty much the kind of thing sexual people think about in the back of our heads all the time, we just don’t usually talk about it. gotta keep it buried under cultural mores, but hey, if you’re gonna bring it up, it’s gotta be to the person you’re in a potentially sexual relationship with.
If anything there’s something kinda intimate about how gross it sounds. That’s the definition of comfortable.
I find it gross in an appealing kinda way. Something kinda primal about that idea supersedes the grossness of it for me. Like how the idea of “work up a good sweat” sounds kinda gross cuz sweat is gross” but it also gives you this imagery of a job well done.
As a person with very definite sexual feelings about the ladies… yeah, that description is kind of off-putting. At least the last bit.
I think it’s the word “pile.” Suggests another kind of pile.
A nuclear pile?
No. Not a nuclear pile.
We knew you meant a Victorian Gothic pile.
I also identify under the ace umbrella, and I absolutely agree with you. While there is a possibility that Dina could be Demisexual and simply isnt at the correct stage of emotional bond, if it bothers Becky that much her girlfriend does not view her in a sexual light, she should not be in the relationship, especially how easily Dina was swayed here to try to do something to please Becky.
The longer I read this comic, the more I grow to absolutely dislike Becky.
I think it’s good that she’s talking about her feelings instead of bottling up her desires. It’d be one thing if she kept her desires to herself, she’s telling Dina about how she feels. They can work from there. She’s not trying to guilt trip her, she’s just speaking openly about how she feels now that she’s realizing Dina may feel differently.
Dina HAS expressed an interest in sex with Becky, though, at Dina’s birthday party. She just doesn’t experience the same kind of arousal or libido that Becky does. Dina’s not being swayed to do anything she doesn’t want to do, and acting a certain way to please a partner isn’t inherently bad. If I make my partner breakfast, it’s not because I think I’m obligated to please him, it’s because it will make him happy.
The problem there though, as I read it, is that although Dinah has expressed an interest in sex with Becky, she’s also made it clear that she will go through with it if Becky wants to; but Becky seems to want Dinah to take the lead (probably due to her repressed upbringing, resulting in a resistance to the idea of actually being responsible for initiating sex) – something Dinah isn’t going to do. If Becky wants the situation she describes in that first panel, she’s going to have to arrange it herself.l
Yeah, fuck Becky. But not literally.
Gross, yes, but when you consider that Becky’s a repressed Christian lesbian who is trying to come to terms with how to progress her relationship with her asexual girlfriend, I can give her some leeway here. Voicing her feelings to Dina is fine, her language is just kind of Belinda Blinked tier of sex thoughts.
I mean, I find it more hot than gross. I’ve always enjoyed the messy aspect of sex – it’s part of the fun.
Like, if you aren’t giggling like an idiot in a pile of various juices, I feel like you’re doing it wrong.
Both of you would like my one friend.
Um… Speak for yourself. Although my name is literally Becky, so…
Fuck, I proved your point.
When I have a sex drive I agree with her sentiment, but the wording is super squick.
Speaking as a (mostly? I guess?) allo here… Black out? What fun is it if you don’t remember it. Six days later? Are you missing work for it? Did you mean to miss work for it? That’s into addiction territory. Was consent involved? I’d guess it was, but it didn’t get mentioned. PILE of their own lady juices? What’d the juices do, harden in layers into something like a termite hive? Yeah, taken literally it’s all pretty disgusting.
And I think that’s on purpose. I’m taking Becky here as emphasizing the loss of control as the big important point. For her love (and sex) are beyond rationality, a force that threatens to overwhelm her reasoning and willpower and (Becky’s version of) decorum. Something bigger than her, something she can get subsumed in. If I’m right, you could substitute the idea of “I want to get wrapped up cuddling and kissing you so thoroughly that we completely lose our sense of time and don’t realize it until a week later, and I feel inadequate, unattractive, and like you’re not invested in this relationship like I am when you don’t feel the same thing about me” and you’d have the same conflict, only expressed in a non-sexual way.
Which… well, I don’t want to say that feelings are WRONG, because feelings aren’t factual matters and I’m not sure they can be right or wrong. But it’s problematic on a few levels. And that’s kind of the point to, and why (in addition to religious baggage) Becky is fighting those urges, and expressing the need to fight them in terms that emphasize the juxtaposition between how over-the-top and kinda disgusting it is and how much she wants them anyway.
This is probably just over-exaggeration as a result of her Sunday school sex mis-education. Or it could just be her style. One of those.
What’s an allo?
Never mind, I found it.
@Reltzik: well put. a sex-negative education is likely to make your sex drive pretty freaky. try to quell desire with talk of sin and punishment, and what you end up with is still desire, still just as strong, but now a bit monstrous.
Yeah, it’s really clear Becky’s looking for the complete loss of control as absolution for wanting to have sex. Also, that she maybe has some questionable ideas of what that entails. End result, kind of terrifying read objectively.
Wow… people do not seem to get hyperbole.
I doubt Becky really means to black out and wake up six days later. However, imagery with one orgasming so hard that one loses track of what is going on for a few moments is common hyperbole in romance novels. Becky is simply ‘turning it up to 11’ as she does with everything.
…. didn’t I say, in effect, that it was hyperbole, meant to emphasize just how strong the drive is?
… huh, I guess that wasn’t as clear as I meant it to be.
i think we’ve seen other instances when Becky associated sexual desire with loss of control.
Juices, as a descriptive term for anything sexual, is right up there with moist, plump and succulent for words that make me shudder
Damn, I like All those words. Especially plump. (ok succulent is a little weird)
I like them as well but when used is a sexual setting it gives me the heebie jeebies
… why? Moist and plump are both female arousal reactions.
Succulent is an odd choice, although if one is comparing their lover to the water-storing capabilities of a cactus, I suppose it would work.
Plump just sounds soft. I mean I’m sure there’s girls who’d hate to be called plump but it’s super sexy to me.
I don’t know but I suspect it has something to do with the connotations, like the idea of a dirty old man in a rain coat saying “moist panties”
Felt a little gross just typing that
Yet wet or thicc doesn’t cause those same reactions
Why specifically a rain coat?
Trench coats are so last century
I’m also ace and have felt this way about Becky since at least As I said on that comic, living with this level of thirst seems like it would be downright debilitating.
Also I have read that apparently allos have a function in their brain that sort of turns off their sense of disgust when sexy times are involved? But many aces (including you and I) don’t have that off switch. So it makes sense that Becky describing this would be gross to us.
Welp, first time trying to embed a link and I totally biffed it. Also don’t know how to edit. Sorry yall.
Well, it isn’t too difficult, but I find it generally easier to just give the URL and let the system worry about changing it to a link.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/doomed/
Editing seems to require a time machine.
Oh no, Becky’s description is horrific, and I am not ace. I am a healthcare provider, and you know you’ve done something wrong when talk of body fluids squicks out a healthcare provider. Becky has accomplished a feat.
Becky has accomplished several feats and I hear she has two left.
She has two left feats huh, perhaps she should join the dog show circuit.
It isn’t something I would have considered gross until seeing it mentioned (I guess I still don’t). It’s like you can describe body processes in a really accurate way and make them seem really squick, you can describe a lot of stuff that way. But if it isn’t getting a visceral reaction then it’s just a descriptive word.
Becky is just talking about physicality overcoming the wall in her mind that she shouldn’t do stuff. The ‘gross’ words just seem interchangeable for that . I suppose it’s like someone asking you to take the trash out and describing the state of the garbage bag.
I’m probably not ace and I find Becky’s description kinda gross too.
You know, this whole thread kind of demonstrates the cultural misogyny when it comes to descriptions of female arousal.
Everyone is getting all grossed out by the idea of female arousal – ie, wetness. Women are juicy – it’s how we work. It’s lubrication. Nothing is more natural. And yet, tons of people find even the words to describe that wetness to be disgusting.
And yet, no one is saying that terms that describe male arousal are gross.
Just sayin – before you all go off on how gross Becky is, maybe consider your own cultural preprogramming about why you think female wetness is gross.
(In case it isn’t obvious, this thread really upset me.)
I’m sorry that the conversation upset you, Rose. By and large, people’s reactions are just people’s reactions, valid for them as individuals. It could well be cultural, but I’m under the vague (and possibly mistaken) impression that many of the people grossed out identify as female.
Personally I find male arousal just as squicky as female arousal, if not a lot more so. Basically, human sexual activity and response are squicky and gross; it’s just that the sensations and experiences, emotional and otherwise, associated with it are not.
I feel like that’s…kind of an extreme leap in logic? Like if Joe, for example, were to say “God me and that girl basically melted together into a worldwind of sex until I stuffed her like a turkey and soaked in her love juices.” do you think people wouldn’t call it out for being gross? Especially in this community? I’m sorry but I’m really not a fan of when people make a base accusation about people being sexist based on circumstantial evidence. People are allowed to be grossed out by something without it being because they’ve been taught to find lady parts gross. Take it from me, a guy who DOES find lady parts gross who thinks Becky’s statement is HOT AS FUCK.
I’m hardly an expert, but as I understand it if you’re sexing right then everybody involved should produce gross juices.
Sorry you were upset Rose. Not my intention. I myself am a woman and keeping in mind that I am ace, I find words of arousal for both genders really disgusting. I would prefer not to be told that my reaction is due to misogyny, I have been told that my ace feelings in general are an ‘internalized misogyny’ from people who… I guess, assumed that my lack of interest in sex was due to the cultural attitude that women must remain pure and that I MUST be some poor, repressed woman that just internalized misogyny and thus doesn’t want sex.
When really, I just don’t want sex and find it repulsive. Everybody else can do their thing, but I do find a lot of Becky’s descriptions, from the idea of blacking out for 6 days, to waking up in a ‘pile’ of ‘juices’ to be very offputting. It’s not because Becky and Dina are women, it’s not because of ‘lady juices’, it’s because the idea of two people (of any gender) being passed out for six days in coagulated juices (of any kind) just makes me want to take a shower.
I don’t know if that’s a fair assessment. There’s loads of words Becky coulda used that would have read as much less squicky, I’m sure- wet or slick come to mind as pretty benign or even sexy words to describe the physiological state of an aroused vagina. Juices reminds me of, like… food. Not even good food, for some reason it takes me straight to a slab of raw steak, and not a piece of fruit or something. That’s why it grosses me out. Same would go for succulent, and plump just reminds me of a kindly old grandma, so that’s a no from me.
There’s a ton of gross words to describe an erect penis, too. Engorged, for instance. Just makes me think of some kind of medical condition. Throbbing, tumescent, occasionally you’ll see weeping, and boy is THAT one gross. You can make any sex act sound repulsive if you word it right.
I’m a cis lady. Bodily fluids are gross no matter who they come from.
Jars of semen are gross too, Rose.
Bodily fluids, outside the context that you want them in, are gross.
All of them.
I’m not at all sure why I thought Becky said “jar of our own juices” instead of pile, but I own that misread.
I think you just told on yourself. Let Rainbow Dash free.
I hate that I know exactly what you’re referring to.
RIGHT!?
Ugh. Please, don’t remind me of that shit. There was a dude in one of our Skype chats back in the day that loved posting those pictures.
hey Rose, you probably won’t read this cos it’s the next day but you have my sympathies, i can see how there was an element of something-shaming in this outpouring of unrestrained expressions of disgust, contempt, disapproval… sorry about that, definitely bad phrasing and insensitivity on my part at least.
Hearing it generally? Yes. Imagining myself and my partner in that context (who is funnily enough sex positive aspec)? i definitely get where she’s coming from
I wouldn’t call it gross.
I’d call it really, really dumb.
My thoughts exactly, Dina.
Ooga ooga ooga!
Ok so. I said I wasn’t gonna do another of these but like. Look I’m like super into boob flashing and this sorta happened. This isn’t my fault I swear I’m gonna take a break after this.
https://imgur.com/a/Z77Dnt8 (NSFW)
Despite the nudity, that is so wholesome and I can totally imagine that happening.
Except that instead of Boop! it would be Hompk!
I’m not certain if you were aiming for hawt or absolutely adorable, but you absolutely hit both.
Mostly the adorable. Ya gotta just smile.
Y’see the best lewd is never just one thing. o3o a lot of people draw porn and forget the characterization. That’s the best part!
Shoulda’ gone with
“Do you like Apples?”
“How do you like them Apples!”
I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere before but not sure where. My favorite is Futurama’s
“You should go into the kitchen and make me sugar cookies”
“How about THESE cookies, Sugar?”
The apples gas is from Good Will Hunting.
My second favorite line from that episode. Not even that can top ‘Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. “I’m my own Grandpa” !’
Utterly adorable but also likely to make Becky’s mind melt… In the best way!
SO CUTE!!! ^^
But, um… why is Dina leaning forward weirdly? Before the boop, I mean. That doesn’t strike me as her usual posture.
My artistic answer:
She’s puffing her chest out a bit to really show off the girls
My real answer:
I fucked up and didn’t feel like fixing it (a 3rd time). It was serviceable for the point of the drawing and just figured it wasn’t a huge deal.
Those are both excellent answers. **tips imaginary hat**
Again, Dina does not use contractions. But otherwise, great work!
I can’t believe I was allowed to keep working after that blunder only to make the same mistake twice in a row. I sure hope I get what’s coming to me for THAT blunder.
She does if her boobs are out, she’s removing her limiters.
I don’t think inhibition is the one dimensional axis people often mistake it for. There is literally a whole field of study dedicated to clarifying such a mechanism.
Only one?
She does on occasion, though. It’s just really rare. I had to go back a few pages in her character tag to find an example.
Ooh, I really like this one. It’s too bad it can’t be a grav, or y’all know I’d jump on that in like five seconds. Nice work! 👍👍
I considered making two versions, one with bras, but I’m lazy. Also I don’t know what style of bras they’d go for.
Dina strikes me as either a plain, no-frills beige or colorful cartoon-print kinda gal. Becky is an enigma.
Becky knows the age old addage, if they’re flawless, you can go braless.
Dina would go dinosaur-themed. Maybe feathers to show her plumage.
No grav this time, for obvious reasons, but here’s some color.
You are so hired as Yoto’s official colorist.
If I could get paid to color other people’s art, my little autistic heart might just pop from excitement.
First, we’d have to start paying Yotomoe.
LOVELY. It somehow looks hotter in color <3 (maybe it's the addition of areolas.)
And here I was thinking they weren’t colored different enough.
It’s fine! It’s subtle, you coulda made them “pop” more but they still work.
You make a good point.
When I see two girls whose nipples are colored exactly the same, I think ‘lazy artist’.
I’m sleep-deprived, so please excuse this confusion. Are you saying it looks like I did them the same color? Because Imgur compressed the picture a lot for some reason, and I definitely used different shades on The Girls.
When I see two girls whose nipples are colored exactly the same, I think
“Wow, lucid dreaming is real!”
This is completely amazing.
I dare say Becky appreciated the gesture.
This is adorable ;u;
This made me grin. Cutest NSFW I’ve seen.
😀 Cute and funny. Thanks.
Cute and NSFW, nicely done.
Bless you, Yoto!
That was sweet, especially for NSFW.
“Boop!” is a hoot. Did you choose that for how humans “boop!” on a cat’s nose, and this euphemism?
whaaat “kitten’s nose” is a euphemism for…. nipples??? that seems like a waste of a really good metaphor for the clitoris.
I don’t know who to take up your issue with–I think it might be the Aussies.
I chose boop because it’s a cute noise to make when two things touch.
Boobp
The last frame stands on its own with no need for context or explanation.
Technically this is “symmetrical docking”. Don’t ask me how I know that.
Oh, we know exactly how you know that.
Considering what happened after that one science class, I wonder what will happen once they begin to work on the project… ….together.
Hard science makes everything unsexy
I dunno. HARD science sounds pretty sexy!
Are you sure about that? Because as of recently, “Partnered” proves otherwise.
If hard science is unsexy you’re not doing it properly.
you’re supposed to be in a constant state of near-incapacitating arousal when doing hard science. you should be just about to explode with barely contained lust the whole entire time. that’s the scientific method.
Look, if you don’t get flustered every time WHY water has properties straight out of science fiction* comes up, I don’t want to hang around you. By jove, those hydrogen bonds. *fans self*
*No, seriously, if you only knew water from a sci-fi novel, you’d immediately dismiss the whole book as fantasy with no basis in reality.
It’s true that the Universe has to be really fine tuned to get water to work properly.
Which is variously evidence for a designer, a vast number of alternate realities, or inherently biased sampling.
I mean, water doesn’t work “properly” in most of the universe. There’s a band of temperature-pressure ratio in which it does all the incredibly bonkers stuff it does, but outside of it it’s just meh.
those last two aren’t really opposed, in fact they seem to imply each other?
Inherently biased sampling works even if you only have a single sample.
Look at it this way. Suppose I ask for your help in a science experiment. I give you a six sided dice and ask you to verify as well as you can in a short period of time that it is a fair dice, resulting in a number showing on the top from 1 to 6, each of them equally likely. While you are doing that, where you can’t see what I’m writing, I write “You rolled a 1” on a card and place it in an envelope. After a while, I ask you if the dice seems reasonably fair to you. Unless you tell me that it almost always rolls ones, I hand you the envelope and ask you to put it in your pocket or other secure location. I then ask you to roll the dice one final time. If you roll anything but a 1, then I shoot you in the head putting a bullet through your brain. If you roll a 1 then I have you open the envelope and look at what I wrote and then I ask you for the explanation of why what you rolled matched what I wrote.
The correct answer is, “inherently biased sampling.”
It remains the correct answer even if the experiment is only ever performed once.
It also remains the correct answer even if we used a jillion sided dice instead.
Dina just starts describing Tex Avery cartoon reactions in monotone: “Heart pounding out of chest in anatomically incorrect shape. Tongue rolls out like an unnervingly fleshy carpet.”
Your momma is a thespian!
NGL I headcanon Becky’s dead mom as also having been a lesbian, trapped in a loveless marriage with Toedad. It’d explain Hank’s comment that she would be proud of the person Becky’s become.
Actually, it’s my wife who’s the thespian.
….
Or at least she acts like it.
not sure if Becky’s expression in the last panel is “tear my clothes off right now” or “nope, this is not gonna work” but we’ll probably find out tomorrow
The right side of her face is sad, but the left side is, “Bazongas! Ooga, ooga,ooga!”
What web page is she even looking at?
I mean… depends on whether or not Dina has safesearch enabled on her phone
I want to say yahoo answers but DoA now exists in a timeline where it’s been gone months.
Homina Homina Homina Homina
and all the other comical sounds
hubba-hubba zoot-zoot anum-num
“Uhm, my Bazongas are down HERE.”
o3o I almost hate to say but I dream of a day a girl says that to me.
Well, to be fair… Dina’s about halfway there already.
(I’m starting to wonder if this relationship is doomed, because Becky can’t come to terms with Dina’s asexuality.)
To be fair, I think that’d be a tough thing for any non-asexual to not only accept but to live with. Physical intimacy is a normal, healthy part of just about every romantic relationship, necessary even to help the bonds of love remain.
If one of them cannot be physically intimate, then it’s going to be that much harder for the relationship to continue.
There’s more than one form of physical intimacy.
So on one hand: some ace people are down to bone- for some folks, just cuz they’re not sexually attracted to you doesn’t mean they’re not down for sex *with* you, since they won’t *necissarily* be repulsed by it either. (Kind of like masturbating- you’re not going to be attracted to your own hand/vibe/whatever, but you can still have a good time? Wish I had a better metaphor)
Now, some ace peeps are definitely sex-repulsed, and just won’t wanna bone, but we can’t really assume either way in dina’s case since she hasn’t tried it and has more or less said she doesn’t know what it’ll be like. But physical intimacy is a bit different from sexual attraction, if that makes sense.
And on the flip side, there ARE allo people who are fine with no sex ever. It’s not an automatic relationship death sentence.
Dina has explicitly stated she’s willing to be physically intimate. The hangup is Becky’s perception of how Dina sees her, and if her failure to present as sexually attractive is indicative of her worth in a Christian society.
(and also, it kind of seems like Becky wants the self-esteem that comes from being lusted after; there’s a whole ball of issues)
the biggest ball
of twine in Minnesota.This is it, precisely.
Now, now, Dina is not completely asexual; it’s that she can only feal that kind of arousal in particular circumstances.
They just need to figure out what they are. Perhaps backtracking to the end of that one science class would be a good place to start?
Those thoughts are along the lines of my own. I don’t believe Dina has expressly stated she’s asexual. In this strip she’s giving me pretty strong demisexual vibes when she references being attracted to Becky because it’s Becky. Dina almost certainly knows what a “conventionally” attractive woman looks like, but those ladies aren’t her girlfriend, so she’s not going to lust after them. Sharing that emotional connection with Becky seems to be what makes Becky attractive to Dina, and Dina has definitely expressed her willingness and desire to engage in physical intimacy with Becky of her own volition. I think it’s pretty unfair of Becky to not place as much value on that expression simply because the intensity doesn’t match that of her own desires.
Yeah, this is painful for me to read as an ace person. Having your feelings be basically dismissed as worthless because they aren’t the ‘right’ kind of feelings hurts. Like, a lot.
Word of Willis confirmed she’s grey-ace
Asexuality is attraction, not arousal. You can experience no attraction to anyone and be horny as sin, you can be allo with 0 libido
Give her time. Everybody’s got ideas in their heads about the future, and those can’t be changed instantly. She’ll get used to the world she actually lives in.
And I’d bet that she’ll come to terms with Dina’s asexuality faster than I came to terms with mine, and I don’t think it would be fair for me to hold her to a more stringent standard than that.
But likely only in her timeline. For us watching it, it’s already taken years and will likely take more.
I’m hoping that it being a focus the last few arcs and them talking about it now means she’ll at least get over the worst hangups and start educating herself.
Or they’ll break up and it’ll suck, but.
Can’t tell if Becky in the final panel is sad or laughing.
…it’s Becky, so probably both.
Two expressions. Cover one half her face, then the other. People actually work like that.
…oh my god they’re Peppermint Patty and Marcie.
Dina, once you are done “researching” you should give Becky a 30 second hug. They work wonders.
Also, Becky’s horniness shows itself again; I am convinced we’ll have a Slipshine of these two before this comic ends.
Hugs are drugs and I need my fix.
This guy understands.
Ah Becky, you sweet insecure lesbian. One day you will stop shooting yourself in the foot but today is not that day. But hey, communication! A very good step!
As she continues in her valiant attempt to convice Becky, she goes:
Ooga-Ooga Chaka Ooga
Ooga-Ooga Chaka Ooga
Ooga-Ooga Chaka Ooga
I can’t stop this feeling
Deep inside of me
Girl, you just don’t realize
What you do to me
It’s definitely a valiant effort. After all, who WOULDN’T be convinced by some impromptu Blue Swede?
I- er- isn’t it 1 Ooga then the chaka, then 2 Oogas?
it’s the thought that counts.
Hot diggety dog diggety boop whatcha do to me…
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I like that they’re communicating and that Dina is willing to work on pleasing her partner but it just feels a little one sided right now. Like Becky is chasing this unrealistic fantasy of a person who is super horny for her at all times. A girl version of Joe basically. But that’s a lot to live up to. I don’t think Dina should carry all that expectation. I think they can meet in the middle a bit more.
I think Dina is being perfectly reasonable and has maintained excellent communication throughout their relationship, but the church has poisoned Becky’s sense of worth as a dutiful godly future wife.
This. 🙁
How have Becky and Daisy never met?
Yknow, what would be a wild twist is if Becky cheated on Dina by having full on crazy sexy times with Daisy, from being so hung up on Dina’s lack of sexual attraction and Daisy being, well, sexually attracted to anyone with boobs. It’s not a path I see DoA taking and it’s not a route that I would want for them, but that would be a wild arc
“A girl version of Joe”
So, Daisy.
Daisy’s definitely horny enough and might even be exactly what Becky’s looking for as far as insensity of desire but I wouldn’t say she’s a Joe. To be at Joe levels you have to be horny and capable of regularly acting on it. We actually haven’t seen a girl character like that yet lesbian or otherwise. Daisy’s very horny but also very lonely. That’s a key distinction.
You always hear about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but it’s a lesser-known fact that there were also 700 Thespians there. An even lesser-known fact is that there actually weren’t any Spartans. There were just a thousand Thespians, 300 of whom were playing Spartans.
So, they were… acting?
They were committed to their part.
Also like 900 Slaves. Detail that tends to get left out
I guess it clashes with portraying Sparta as anything other than a horrible oppressive slave state rotten to it’s core in every imaginable way
Wait, Dina wants to research treating women like objects for her pleasure?
This looks like a job for Super-Joe!
Joe: You had me at lesbians.
Dina… some advice. Never take to the stage.
Well, this is her FIRST attempt at role playing a role she has no natural affinity for and has spent like three seconds researching online.
But this is also DINA. When she throws herself into learning a subject, she goes all the way. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her diving into the question, reading scholarly papers about how emotional and sexual drives interact, etc. My headcanon’s already playing out extremely awkward (for them) conversations she can be having with the research desk at the library. And given that she’s already into role-playing (rarr… er, hompk), I’m pretty sure she can master this role too.
… but she probably shouldn’t need to. I’m pretty sure that decent conversation can sort it all out. It’s not like we’re in a comic strip where communication is ruined by ill-timed interruptions or perpetual foot-in-mouth disease.
“awkward conversations she can be having with the research desk at the library” Questionable Content. The Horny Vault.
Not only is Dina a thespian, she masticates daily, and I understand that she had to matriculate before the Dean of Admissions before she was allowed to attend classes.
She has been heard to eructate as well.
Time for Becky to learn that sometimes getting what you want means you find out you didn’t want what you got. But this is cute and communication is good.
Dina and Joe need to hang out more
I’m just imagining her following him with a pen and a pad.
“ok, and so you compared these women to poultry. Is that an important step? And how effective are your techniques”
“Shockingly effective. I am just as surprised at my own successes as anyone.”
She could ride on his shoulders, taking notes. I’d pay good money to see that.
Now that’s a titillating book title if I ever heard one.
*Dead… just dead from laughter*
Alexa, show me how to perv
We couldn’t find any restaurants with that title in your area.
I like this. They’re awkward as sin, but they’re talking and trying to navigate this.
Hm, you might want to stick with “HOMPK!”
Playing to her strengths is a good idea.
It frustrates me as a grey ace like Dina, because Dina’s perfectly willing to experiment and looks forward to it. Becky who is waiting for marriage doesn’t want that she just wants Dina to be distracted with desire for her and Dina just doesn’t work that way.
Yeah same here, I’m finding it difficult to read when Dina is trying so much and Becky is still wishing she was something she isn’t. I can see at the moment it’s Becky just talking through her feelings but as an ace person reading it, it’s just like ugh idk why does this one thing have to be so difficult to accept, can you just accept this amazing girlfriend you have
I’m hanging in there with the strip itself, but there’s only so much bandwidth I have for the comments and constant misunderstandings of asexuality.
Becky’s a repressed 18-year-old, I don’t expect her to come in with a baseline understanding and there’s clearly anxiety in the way. Exasperating, yes, but internally consistent fictional character. The real people who don’t seem interested in Googling or listening to ace commenters? That hurts.
And here i was thinking this couldn’t get awkward
Yo Becky, maybe you should let go of a few of your fantasies; they’re blocking your view of this real and absolutely amazing girlfriend. “I like the way you look because it’s the way *you* look”? Holy shit, that’s the most goddamn romantic thing anyone has said in this whole story!
Yeah, Dina’s been killin’ it pretty consistently for the duration of this relationship.
This basically sums up how I feel about absolutely everything to do with my partner as an ace person. I just wish society and allo people in general could actually appreciate the way our aceness gives us a potentially unique perspective on romance, instead of having our feelings always be automatically assumed to be lesser, or some sort of compromise, or a burden, just because they aren’t what is expected or considered “normal”.
What is she using for research? Perhaps she actually is living up to the standards presented within.
I love Becky’s expression in the final panel. She’s experiencing, like, fifteen simultaneous emotions, isn’t she?
I also love Dina. Just like, in general. Controversial opinion, over here, watch out.
Reach heaven through research, girl.
Why do I have a feeling that Raymond Holt and Dina could bond over not reacting to tiddies
“Oh yes, as a very straight man I love tiddies. The bigger the better. Just tiddies on my mind all the time. Am I right, fellow straights?”
Whoa, Dina, don’t over do it.
I feel that because of all of Dina’s dinosaur internet searches, all of her other searches will first pass through a “prehistoric” style Google result. Hence cave-lady attraction.
Okay, I’m sold.
My new Jedi name is Ooga Hompk.
Welp, I’m convinced.
well she did claim all she needed was “sufficient” research.
and how do you know figure out how much research is needed?
hypothetico-deductive method, baby.
Reading some of the reactions of ace readers regarding this storyline, I wonder how difficult it is to balance writing a story that comes at the expense of a character part of a real life group where misunderstanding about the building blocks of who they are (which is a shared universal experience) has a textual acknowledgement in sympathetic and heroic characters.
I had opinions about Danny and Amber and the reactions from the commentariat they received, some where I overreacted and some where I was completely justified in feeling the way I did, but what I’m getting at is that the textual elements of their characters reflecting my own life lead me to have extremely strong reactions to both the story developments and how other people reacted to them.
Minor note, but I like your Grav. I recognize the JJBA half of the reference, but who’s the character cosplaying as Jotaro? Looks a little bit like Joyce to me.
It was a commission by Yotomoe, who you should give money to so he draws more stuff!
It’s Joyce dressed like Jotaro. I was gonna spring for Joe as Star Platinum at one point but that might not make a good grav.
Oh right something else to append to the above.
I also wonder how difficult it is writing this material when it comes out one page at a time and the audience has 24 hours to stew over it before the next one. If a character in a book does something wrong you just gotta turn enough pages until it’s resolved one way or the other, when I read John Dies At The End I can go “damn Dave Wong is an asshole” and then keep reading until I find greater insight into his character. That’s not something the reader can control in ongoing fiction.
I suspect that’s a particularly tricky aspect. Even a collection of the storyline, or it posted in full in the archives, lets you go from one strip into the next so you don’t have to stew in the ‘ugh Becky I get why you don’t get this but also WHY AREN’T YOU LISTENING TO WHAT DINA’S ACTUALLY SAYING HERE’ as much.
It’s a tricky balancing act when writing teenage characters in particular, especially sheltered ones – I’m sure there’s going to be a unique challenge whenever the Joyce Learns About Jocelyne story comes along, as well, because we all know it’ll break her brain for a minute but we’re also sure she’ll be supportive and accepting once she does reboot but in that minute it’s probably going to be a mess. The fact that this is a realistic portrayal of a sheltered teen with deep sexuality-based hangups who will hopefully listen and recognize this doesn’t have to be the dealbreaker her anxiety’s saying it is doesn’t mean I don’t find it kind of exhausting to wait, or that I have much patience for commenters who are ALSO refusing to Google. Probably wouldn’t read a book using this storyline where Becky was the sole protagonist. Might potentially read the sequels, if I knew she would eventually get it.
I am reminded of how Questionable Content handles these kinds of stories, where the cast is pretty much always accepting and understanding because that’s the story Jeph Jacques wants to tell. I think there’s value in that, I think Queer characters should be able to exist even if their stories aren’t Queer Romance Drama, but then I also both see value in Dumbing of Age’s approach where sympathetic and likable characters will say stupid and abhorrent shit that comes naturally to them because they have no reason to believe otherwise, while also having to understand based on my own experiences where I was upset and then took it way, way too far, that it’s extremely easy for me to say “I hope Becky gets educated and learns to communicate with Dina, she’s being unfair placing all these expectations around Dina’s sexuality” when I basically made it my job to get mad at everyone here if they said the wrong thing about Danny, and also I changed what the wrong thing was in real time.
Yep. People are complicated and messy and there’s value in showing that, but that does sometimes produce stronger emotional reactions. (I also think the DoA cast being college undergrads, mostly freshmen, is a huge factor in why it’s tolerable too. That young you’re still mostly a kid, and that means a lot more fucking up is expected than even the ambiguously 20somethings of the QC cast. Though maybe some of them have been allowed to graduate to being 30 now.)
“Dina… Please don’t ever do that again.”
It’s the third “ooga” that really sells it.
Today’s Joyce and Walky strip title is surprisingly fitting for this.
“Must Make Bigger”?
I imagine Dina would sound the same as me if I ever uttered those lines.
Don’t be discouraged by a single failed trial, Dina! Collect the data point, refine your hypothesis, and try again!
Next time try “OMG dem titties” and “mlam mlam mlam”
dina is right and she should say it
Honestly, just stick to “Hompk!” It suits Dina better, and we all love Dina.
Yeah, that’s about how convincing I can be.
Except I have more to fake.
Dina cracks me up!
Dina is 100% Cinnamon Roll, Too Precious and Pure for This World.
She’s a good kid.
While I couldn’t be with someone like Dina I am impressed with her patience towards Becky
So she just texted Joe for advice?
well, i’m convinced.
Poor Becky in that last panel. 🙁 That is the look of “this is never going to be the relationship that I dreamed of”. I don’t think I’ve ever made a similar expression, but I know the EXACT feeling that spawns it when I’ve mentioned that I’m into BDSM to potential partners before and a look of complete disgust/outrage/”this relationship is over” comes over their face. Sometimes, if the attraction/feelings are strong enough, they’ll try to indulge me, but I now know from experience that if their first reaction isn’t excitement/curiosity, it’s going to be a part of me that they’ll never truly accept.
Ah, a very subtle Simpsons reference.
One CAN condition one’s brain to do almost anything, if determined, including sexual orientation.
Whether one *should* is a whole other debate. I tend to think choosing to do so oneself, out of one’s own desire to be a certain way, absolves a lot of the negativity out of the issue.